How the law decides what is a charitable purpose

For further guidance on how the law decides what a charitable purpose is, see Annex C.

Charities carrying out purposes internationally

Legal requirement: a charity cannot have purposes that are illegal under the law of England and Wales.

The law of England and Wales is not universal and the laws of other countries will differ. This means some charities that are registered in England and Wales might have purposes that are not legally valid in another country.

The general position is that if a purpose would be charitable if it were carried out in England and Wales, it will also be considered charitable if a charity registered in England and Wales intends to carry out that purpose in other countries.

Similarly, if a purpose is considered to be of detriment or harm if carried out by a charity in England and Wales, it will also be considered to be of detriment or harm if it is to be carried out in other countries by a charity registered in England and Wales.

Part 3: About the ‘descriptions of purposes’

The Charities Act lists 13 ‘descriptions of purposes’.

Legal requirement: the ‘descriptions of purposes’ is a list of broad headings that a purpose must fall under to be a charitable purpose.

Each description serves as a general heading under which a range of different charitable purposes fall.

The list of descriptions of purposes, taken as a whole with the range of purposes that fall under each description, covers everything recognised, or which may be recognised, as charitable in England and Wales.

The 13 descriptions of purposes

The 13 descriptions of purposes listed in the Charities Act are:

(a) the prevention or relief of poverty

(b)the advancement of education

(c) the advancement of religion

(d) the advancement of health or the saving of lives

(e) the advancement of citizenship or community development

(f) the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science

(g) the advancement of amateur sport

(h) the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity

(i) the advancement of environmental protection or improvement

(j) the relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage

(k) the advancement of animal welfare

(l) the promotion of the efficiency of the armed forces of the Crown, or of the efficiency of the police, fire and rescue services or ambulance services

(m) any other purposes currently recognised as charitable or which can be recognised as charitable by analogy to, or within the spirit of, purposes falling within (a) to (l) or any other purpose recognised as charitable under the law of England and Wales

The Charities Act does not define what each of these descriptions of purposes mean. However, it does provide some definitions, or partial definitions, for some of the descriptions. These are set out in Annex D.

Legal requirement: where any of the terms used in the descriptions of purposes has a particular meaning in charity law in England and Wales, the term must be taken as having the same meaning where it appears in the descriptions of purposes.

For more on what each of these descriptions mean, and the sorts of purposes that fall within them, see:

Using the wording of the descriptions as charitable purposes

It may be possible for your charity to adopt as its purpose the wording used in one of the descriptions of purposes where that wording makes it clear:

that what is being advanced is clearly a purpose that is recognised as being charitable for the public benefit

how that purpose is to be achieved (such as ‘the relief of poverty by….’)

In some cases, the wording used in the descriptions of purposes can have more than one meaning, and not all of those meanings are purposes that the law has recognised as charitable or as capable of being for the public benefit.

Where this is the case we will let you know whether that wording can be used as the charity’s purpose and whether it needs to be made clearer.

This publication gives guidance on the legal and regulatory framework for charities wishing to engage in campaigning and political activity

Annex A: Technical terms - Charity Commission

The following terms are used in this guide, and should be understood as having the specific meanings given below:

The Charities Act: the Charities Act 2011.

Charity trustees: the people who serve on the governing body of a charity. They may be known as trustees, directors, board members, governors or committee members. Charity trustees are responsible for the general control and management of the administration of a charity.

Governing document: a legal document setting out a charity’s purposes and, usually, how it is to be administered. It may be a trust deed, constitution, articles of association, will, conveyance, Royal Charter, scheme of the Charity Commission, or other formal document.

High Court: the principal civil court of unlimited civil jurisdiction in England and Wales. It comprises three divisions: Queen’s Bench, Chancery, and the Family Division

Objects: A charity’s ‘objects’ are a statement of its purposes. Usually these are found in the ‘objects clause’ of a charity’s governing document. However, not all charities have a governing document with an objects clause.

Usually a charity’s objects clause means the same as its purposes, but sometimes they are slightly different, such as when:

the objects clause does not adequately or fully express the organisation’s purposes

the clause contains more than just the objects, such as powers

Legal requirement: public benefit requirement: the legal requirement that, to be a charity, an organisation’s purposes must each be for the public benefit.

Purpose(s) and charitable purpose(s): we use the term ‘purpose(s)’ to mean the purpose(s) of an individual organisation. A charity’s purpose sets out what it is set up to achieve.

Legal requirement: to be a ‘charitable purpose’ a purpose must fall within one of the descriptions of purposes in the Charities Act and be for the public benefit. This has to be demonstrated in each case.

The courts: we use this term to mean, collectively, the Tribunal, the Upper Tribunal and the courts.

The Tribunal: the First-tier Tribunal (Charity) is the first level of appeal against the decisions of the Charity Commission set out in Schedule 6 of the Charities Act.

The Upper Tribunal: The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) is the second level of appeal against decisions of the Commission set out in Schedule 6 of the Charities Act.

Annex B: About political purposes

A purpose that is ‘political’ cannot be a charitable purpose

Legal requirement: in charity law, a ‘political purpose’ cannot be a charitable purpose. That means that an organisation cannot be a charity if it has a ‘political purpose’.

However, a charity can carry out ‘political activity’ if it facilitates or supports the delivery of its charitable purposes.

It may also carry out non-political campaigning activities if this clearly is a means of furthering its charitable purposes.

What makes a purpose ‘political’

In charity law, a ‘political purpose’ is not simply a purpose that is concerned with party politics.

When we use the term ‘political purpose’ we mean what charity law considers to be a ‘political purpose’. That means any purpose, whether in this country or overseas, that is aimed at:

furthering the interests of a particular political party

securing or opposing any change in the law, whether in the UK or overseas

securing or opposing a change in the policy or decisions of central government or local authorities or other public bodies, whether in the UK or overseas

Some organisations seeking to register as charities do not consider themselves to be ‘political’ organisations, but they may have a purpose which charity law considers ‘political’.

Deciding whether an organisation’s purpose is ‘political’

The process for deciding whether an organisation has a political purpose is no different from the process generally used to decide whether any organisation does or does not have charitable purposes.

The answer lies in deciding:

what an organisation’s purposes are

the reason why the political activity is being carried out.

It is not simply a case of assessing how much political activity the organisation undertakes.

We need to consider a range of features when deciding whether or not an organisation is carrying out political activity to further a charitable purpose, or has a political purpose.

We will consider this where the political activity that an organisation carries out is:

integral to the organisation’s work

at least part of the reason for the organisation’s existence

a ‘freestanding’ purpose, an end in itself, with no direct and immediate connection with the work of the organisation in carrying out its charitable purposes

the sole, or continuing, activity of the organisation

We will let you know where there is an issue about whether your organisation has a political purpose.

Why ‘political purposes’ cannot be charitable purposes

Legal requirement: a ‘charitable purpose’ must be ‘for the public benefit’.

The courts have taken the view that they are not in a position to judge whether or not a ‘political purpose’ is for the public benefit (and therefore whether or not it is charitable) because:

the courts have no means of judging whether a proposed change in the law, or the policies of a political party, or a policy or decision of government, local authorities or other public bodies, will or will not be for the public benefit

it is for Parliament, not the courts, to decide matters of public policy and changes in the law

in the case of a purpose to change the law or policy overseas, the courts should not prejudice relations between the UK and foreign states by taking a view about whether their laws or policies should be changed or retained

Annex C: How the law decides what is a charitable purpose

See flowchart for illustration on how the law decides what is a charitable purpose.

Annex D: Definitions in the Charities Act

Part 1

Meaning of “charity” and “charitable purpose”

CHAPTER 1

General

3 (1)

(m) any other purposes -

(i) that are not within paragraphs (a) to (l) but are recognised as charitable purposes by virtue of section 5 (recreational and similar trusts, etc.) or under the old law,

(ii) that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to, or within the spirit of, any purposes falling within any of paragraphs (a) to (l) or sub-paragraph (i), or

(iii) that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to, or within the spirit of, any purposes which have been recognised, under the law relating to charities in England and Wales, as falling within sub-paragraph (ii) or this sub-paragraph.

3 (2)In subsection (1) -

(a) in paragraph (c), “religion” includes -

(i) a religion which involves belief in more than one god, and

(ii) a religion which does not involve belief in a god,

(b) in paragraph (d), “the advancement of health” includes the prevention or relief of sickness, disease or human suffering,

(c) paragraph (e) includes -

(i) rural or urban regeneration, and

(ii) the promotion of civic responsibility, volunteering, the voluntary sector or the effectiveness or efficiency of charities,

(d) in paragraph (g), “sport” means sports or games which promote health by involving physical or mental skill or exertion,

(e) paragraph (j) includes relief given by the provision of accommodation or care to the persons mentioned in that paragraph, and

(f) in paragraph (l), “fire and rescue services” means services provided by fire and rescue authorities under Part 2 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.

(3) Where any of the terms used in any of paragraphs (a) to (l) of subsection (1), or in subsection (2), has a particular meaning under the law relating to charities in England and Wales, the term is to be taken as having the same meaning where it appears in that provision.

(4) In subsection (1)(m)(i), “the old law” means the law relating to charities in England and Wales as in force immediately before 1 April 2008.